


The Treasured Few

by tanktrilby



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, reiko makes a cameo, vague mentions of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2798180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanktrilby/pseuds/tanktrilby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsume wonders whether Reiko could have been that powerful -enough to defeat a grieving god and take his name, whether all the stories about her cold precise mercilessness were true after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Treasured Few

**Author's Note:**

  * For [signalbeam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/signalbeam/gifts).



Green shoots dot the snare of dead twigs and it’s _miraculous._ Natsume exhales sharply; his fingers tighten around the watering can, and he can feel it when, perched precariously on his shoulder and complaining about the cold, Nyanko-sensei goes still.

Half-dazed, he crouches. The shoots gather in tiny clusters of vivid green, and from here he can see the peony that flowered so gloriously last spring. The earth still feels cold and unyielding, but all Natsume can think about are the days Touko spent right in this spot, mixing the soil with warm water. He thinks about that warmth, sinking down, reaching the frozen places where the seeds slept. Touko’s own kindness, gently urging the plants to grow.

Nyanko-sensei butts his hand. “Natsume,” he whines, earlier shock forgotten. “I’m going to get my own breakfast. I smell squid!”

Natsume gathers him up and crushes him to his chest. “It’s a miracle,” he says quietly.

Nyanko-sensei keeps struggling. “It was bound to happen,” he says mulishly. “It’s spring, idiot Natsume. Do you know what that really means? Warm food! Food, Natsume!”

He bonks sensei’s head with his hand, taking one last, grateful look around. “I guess it is,” he says, soft, glad, and with Nyanko-sensei tucked grumblingly under his jacket, he walks back home.

 

*

It took two weeks for the entire eastern forest to die, and everywhere, there were ayakashi, screaming and grieving, running around trying to find the safest hiding place. A few of them yanked Natsume by the cuff of his jeans and made him listen; it wasn’t fire, it wasn’t those cruel clumsy humans, it was something with malevolence like a spear-head, arcing through the forest cold and sharp and strong.

“Impossible,” Nyanko-sensei scoffed, springing down from his perch on Natsume’s shoulder. He waded through the gathered youkai, head held derisively high. “Tree sicknesses don’t spread that fast, and a curse would have done that damage overnight. You weaklings probably set fire to it yourselves.”

The fearful silence that trailed his words was broken by a bird ayakashi, her voice quiet and sweet: “You are mistaken, Madara-sama. It’s not just the trees that died. The entire forest did.”

Natsume blinked at her, not understanding. “The entire…forest?”

She inclined her head, dark hair falling over one shoulder. For a second, Natsume caught a glimpse of an inky mark on her shoulder; mostly hidden by her yukata, and stretching towards her face. “Indeed, Natsume-sama. Even the guardians were helpless in the face of this power.”

Natsume felt his hand come up to his mouth. Around them, the smaller, more helpless ayakashi were making noises of distress, hunching into themselves sadly. “…everything?”

“We tried to find it,” she said, and her lovely flute-like voice dipped and wavered. “Find…this _thing_ that was killing all that we treasured. We barely escaped with our own lives.”

Natsume stared at her. His insides felt like they were turning to poison, black and corrosive. “What,” he clears his throat. “Did you see anything?”

She shook her head, and so did the cyclops and kappa standing beside her. “We ran when we saw it spreading. The plants and flowers all shriveled up, and I saw a rat do the same even while it was running,” the cyclops said.

“That’s…” _awful,_ Natsume wanted to say, but it was beyond that. He tried imagining something like it happening to him, to his friends, all the people who were kind and patient with him, and it felt like he couldn’t breathe.

 _“Natsume,”_ Nyanko-sensei said sharply. Natsume blinked his vision back into focus- Sensei was coming towards him, eyes narrowed. “Let’s go. It’s dangerous here. What happened there could come here, and even I might have trouble stopping it.”

Natsume curled his fists. Nyanko-sensei’s kindness was different, almost the opposite of what he used to think what it looked like and it was hard to keep reminding himself of that. He took a deep breath and said, “Sensei, does that mean you’ve seen this before?”

Nyanko-sensei shook his head. “Nope! And I don’t want to see it now, so let’s go home.”

“We can’t leave!” Natsume’s hands were shaking. Sensei’s eyes widened before they narrowed; the ancient cold wisdom swirling in them, making him look more dangerous than his true form. “Everyone might die, this is serious!”

Nyanko-sensei kept on staring at him, claws digging into the ground.  

“Hmph,” he said finally, trotting over to the bird ayakashi and reaching out a paw. “Let me see.”

Natsume didn’t get it. “See what?”

The ayakashi was already reaching for her neckline, pulling the hem of her yukata away. The ugly mark Natsume had noticed before blooms straight downwards, swirling into where her hands emerge from her sleeves.

“What-“

“Idiot Natsume,” Nyanko-sensei said smugly. “Can we go home now? Whoever did this is too strong for us to handle, even if we call that annoying exorcist. We’ll just get eaten if we stay.”

“We can’t-“ Natsume stopped. Stupid to have that argument again, when Sensei had clearly already made up his mind. He turns to the gathered ayakashi. “We’ll definitely stop whoever’s doing this,” he said firmly.

The bird ayakashi trembled. “Please do, Natsume-sama,” she said, and Natsume nodded, his throat tight.

*

Asking his friends was no help. In a small town like theirs, news was fast to travel, but no one had heard of why an entire section of the great forest died overnight. It was too big, too frightening to ignore; everyone had their own theory about how it might have happened, and none of them was particularly helpful.

“Those small-fry in the forest, they don’t have a chance,” Nyanko-sensei mutters as they go home, Natsume biting his lip in frustration. “Things that big don’t stop with just a part of the forest. They eat and eat until there’s nothing left anymore, or till something drives them away.”

Natsume looked at him, frowning. “If only we knew what it was, we could talk to it.”

Nyanko-sensei leapt to the top of the gate of their house, rattling it so that Natsume couldn’t open it. “What could kill a whole forest could kill you.”

“I know that,” Natsume said rigidly, picking him up and setting him on the fence. “I won’t let anything swallow up that forest if I can help it.”

The smell of stir-fry was drifted towards them as soon as they went inside the house. Natsume smiled despite himself; this really was his home, peaceful and warm and familiar. He called out -softly- that he was back and found Touko inside the kitchen, spoon in hand, smiling at him. “Welcome back, Takashi-kun,” she said.

Natsume smiled back. “Is Shigeru-san coming home early today?”

She shook her head gently. “No, he has a new project at work, so he’ll be a little late from now on,” she said. She passed him an apple, which he took with a murmured thanks. She beamed at him, impossibly fond, and turned back to her cooking.

Natsume bit into the apple, turning back to go upstairs when-

“It really is a shame,” Touko said, still stirring the pot.

Natsume paused. “Touko-san?”

She started, turning back to him. “Oh, did I say that out loud?” She put her hand to her cheek, smiling. “I was thinking about how Shigeru-san will be working late, just when that awful thing at the forest happened.”

Natsume tensed.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, Takashi-kun,” she said. “I’m just being silly. We used to hear so many stories about those woods when we were young, so I’m used to thinking all sorts of nonsense about it.”

“Do you mean it has…stories about it?” Natsume asked, tilting his head.

Touko laughed, turning back to her cooking. “Oh yes, quite a few. We were convinced it was haunted, you know. It’s the biggest forest in the district, so it was always so mysterious. But there was one story, that I thought was quite lovely but very sad, and now, with everything that’s happened, I couldn’t help remembering it again.”

Natsume slid out a chair, sitting at the table and trying to seem casual. Nyanko-sensei waddled over to his bowl, seeming wholly uninterested. “What was the story?”

“Let me see… I don’t think any of us knew any details, or even if the story was the same for all of us, but the one I heard was about two twins, a god and a goddess. They grew up in that forest, playing and learning together, until one day, the sister caught a terrible disease from a cursed snake and began to die.

“She was all her brother had ever known, so he desperately tried to find a cure. He searched far and wide, asking the birds and the rabbits, all the creatures who had played with them. His sister was kind and brave, telling him that he would be fine on his own, but he stamped his feet and cursed everything in the forest for letting this happen to her.

“She died, no matter what he did. He was so sad, too miserable to stray from where she was buried. But then everything else around him began to die as well. All the grass, the plants, and eventually the great big trees all blackened and shriveled up. You see, Takashi-kun, those two children were the gods of the forest. Not one, but two; one for creation, and one for endings. The one who had died -his pretty sister- had been the god of life in the forest, and without her, there was no balance.”

Tears spilled on the table, sliding gracefully from Touko’s face. She was smiling, sad and and sweet, bringing her hand up to wipe her tears, saying, “Oh, you must think I’m an idiot, Takashi-kun, getting worked up over something like this.”

Natsume thought about how kind a person had to be, how loving, to be moved to tears when hearing about a sadness that wasn’t theirs. “It’s a sad story,” he said. He smiled at her softly. “What happened then?”

“I don’t think I ever heard that part,” Touko said. Natsume dug around in his bag for a handkerchief, and handed it to her a little awkwardly; she was laughing when she took it from him. “I was probably crying too hard. But I think the little god disappeared, because the forest has been fine ever since. Until now, of course.”

Natsume looked down at his hands. “He must be lonely.”

She ruffled his hair. Startled, he looked up.

Touko smiled. “Everyone has a place they belong, Takashi-kun. I’m sure the god found his.”

*

“It’s probably after the Book of Friends,” Sensei said irritably, pattering along the woods at Natsume’s heels. “This is more trouble than it’s worth.”

Natsume wondered whether Reiko could have been that powerful -enough to defeat a grieving god and take his name, whether all the stories about her cold precise mercilessness were true after all. Maybe kindness was impossible for someone who didn’t even know what it looked like.

They were going deep into the forest, Natsume following Nyanko-sensei and hoping whatever sense he claimed to have was accurate. The ayakashi of the forest had followed them halfway, a tentative nervous huddle that squeaked in fear when asked questions. There’d been some recognition when Natsume told them Touko’s story, though, enough for it to be their best shot.

“Oi, Natsume,” Nyanko-sensei groused. “Stop daydreaming and keep your eyes open. Gods don’t just stand out in the open.”

“You mean-“ Natsume blinked. He peered cautiously at the gaping bough of a tree, half-relieved when all he saw was a collection of maggots.

“Idiot! As if a god would crawl into-“

Natsume stopped when Nyanko-sensei did, his legs bumping uncomfortably into him. “Sensei, what-“

Sitting with his back to a dead trunk was a man, long dark hair sweeping forward from his bent head. A spear was propped up next to him, the handle elegant and lovingly-crafted, obviously magical. His arms were wrapped around his legs, and his clothes were simple, well-worn; nothing like Natsume had expected a god of death to look like.

“Natsume, that’s-“ hissed Sensei.

“I know,” Natsume hissed back.

The god stirred. They both froze.

Slowly, one hand raised to rub at ocean-blue eyes, the god raised his head. His hair tumbled waist-length, spiking stubbornly; when he looked at them, Natsume saw that he was pale, very pale, but with two spots of color high on his cheekbones.

“Oh,” said the god, blinking at them. “Is this your spot?”

Sensei twitched.

“Um,” Natsume said. His voice sounded hoarse. “No?”

The god smiled, eyes lighting up. “Thank goodness for that. I’ve been doing some awful things lately, and I’d hate to think I was stealing your tree from you. Though,” he added sadly, looking up, “there isn’t much of a tree left at all.”

“I- we- we can see that,” Natsume said uncertainly.

The god’s smile softened. He had the loveliest eyes Natsume had ever seen. “You don’t have to be so thoughtful, you know. I can sense her death all over you.”

Natsume cleared his throat.

Sensei narrowed his eyes. “You mean Reiko’s?”

The god nodded. “Poor Reiko-chan,” he said softly. “Human lives are so short. I didn’t expect her to have joined Atsuko so soon, however.”

Natsume tensed. “Atsuko…that’s your-“

“Sister, yes,” he smiled. He tucked his hair behind his ear, and there was something shockingly graceful about the way he moved, an elegant fluidity that made Natsume feel jagged around the edges in comparison. “And you are Reiko-chan’s…”

“Grandson,” Natsume said immediately. The blue eyes brightened, and Natsume found himself saying, “She passed on the Book of Friends to me.”

Nyanko-sensei hissed.

The god of the forest was tilting his head like a bird. “Oh, I think I remember. She made me write my name once, and promise to come back. After all she’d done for me, I thought it was the least I could do.” He smiled again. “And here I am, but she’s not here to keep her end of the bargain. It’s so sad, I hope…she was happy.”

Natsume and Nyanko-sensei exchanged looks. “Do you mean Reiko-san helped you?”

He laughed. “Yes, and I’m afraid I wasn’t very receptive to her particular brand of kindness. Atsuko was my whole life, you see, and I was desperately lonely and didn’t understand why a human girl kept following me around and challenging me to battles, when I could have killed her with just a touch.” His eyes wandered over the dead trees, expression wistful. “This sort of disaster would have happened much more often if she hadn’t managed to calm me down.”

“Oi, does that mean you did this by accident?” Nyanko-sensei demanded, and horrified, Natsume lunged at him, clapping a hand over his mouth to shut him up.

“Of course not,” the god was bristling a little, warm blue eyes turned frosty, nose turned up like a cat’s. “Our century is over. Maybe the new god of this forest, the one that’s about to be born, will be whole by himself and won’t have to learn how to live as a half. This,” he nods around the clearing, “was the release of the last of my powers. The new one will restore the forest, as my sister would have done.”

The weight of the realization is staggering. Natsume never imagined -would never have occurred to him, in a hundred years- that the dark diseased aura that hung about the remains of a damaged forest was the result of a soul, gentle and thoughtful, dying like the receding eye of a storm.

Quietly, he asks, “And you?”

The smile that came next was dazzlingly sweet -eyes closed, as if feeling the sunshine on them. “I will go back,” he hummed. “Back to my beloved Atsuko, and maybe I’ll see that annoying human girl with the big heart again too.”

Natsume’s heart lurched. “That…” he cleared his throat. Blindly, he rummaged in his bag for the Book. “Um, would you like your name back, er-“

“Kei,” the god smiled. “My name is-“

*

_“…Kei?” laughter, and for a moment, that dreadful shadow on his face goes away and his face scrunches up in irritation, a huge pout blossoming petulantly. “That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard!”_

_God, it was awful seeing kids like him, who wore long faces like no one else had been lonely before. The ones with the dead eyes who didn’t even have anything to hate except themselves, they were the absolute worst, and this kid -this god, and what the hell was up with that, he was way too weak to be a proper god- he’d lost his twin, hadn’t he, she couldn’t even imagine…._

_“Kei, then,” she rolled her eyes. “How about a match?”_

*

The silence of the blackened forest was overwhelming. Natsume pulled himself shakily upright, and of course, Kei was gone- the barest twinkle of silver remained where he’d leaned his spear, but other than that, all Natsume had was a bell-like laugh echoing in his ears.

“Natsume,” Nyanko-sensei said, butting his hand with his head. “Oi, Natsume, that god’s gone. Let’s go home, too. It’s cold! I’m hungry!”

Natsume picked him up. The wind was a little softer, the air a little clearer. Soon, these trees would be crowned with green again, and the flowers will be starbursts of color scattered across the ground.

“Different types of kindness, huh?” Natsume said, and Sensei glared at him balefully. He grinned. “Sounds about right.”

**Author's Note:**

> ...and there it is! I really hope you enjoyed it. I tried to stick to the general feel of the original series, failed miserably a lot of the time but I think some of it managed to carry through ^_^ Have a great season!


End file.
